Christian Bale blasts ignorance over Armenian Genocide

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Bale stars opposite Oscar Isaac and and Charlotte Le Bon in the film that takes place in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

Christian Bale didn't know about the Armenian Genocide before shooting new movie The Promise.

More than 1.5 million people were slaughtered from 1915 to 1923 by the Turkish government during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Despite 26 countries around the world recognising the deaths as genocide, it is still illegal in Turkey to bring up the atrocities.

Bale, 43, plays American journalist Chris Myers in The Promise, which focuses on a love triangle that develops between Myers, Armenian medical student Mikael played by Oscar Isaac, and Charlotte Le Bon's character Ana.

The story begins in 1915, just as the Turkish government begins to round up Armenians after the outbreak of the First World War.

Bale blasted the brutal genocide at a screening of The Promise on Tuesday (18Apr17), and said he was one of many who knew nothing about the slaughter.

"There's something important about a film that many people have tried to stop being made for decades," he told Page Six. "One and a half million people were killed in the most brutal fashion, and I knew nothing about it, and that's not uncommon.

"That's improbably bizarre. This is modern history... The fact that this Armenian genocide happened and no one was ever held accountable may have provoked other genocides since," Bale added.

The former Batman Begins star made an appearance with his wife of 17 years Sibi Blazic at the screening of his new film in New York. The couple was dressed in matching black suits, and Bale stopped on the red carpet to sign autographs for waiting fans.